TL;DR:

• Start by cleaning up your Help Center. Update your articles based on last year’s data, using plain language and clear policy details to boost self-service.
• Use automations to streamline ticket routing and support efficiency. Set rules for tagging, escalation, and inbox views, so your team can respond faster.
• Prep your macros, AI, and staffing plan in advance. Build responses for top FAQs, train AI on the right sources, and forecast agent needs to avoid burnout.
• Automate logistics, upselling, and QA to stay ahead. From showing shipping timelines to flagging low-quality responses, automation ensures smooth operations and more revenue during peak season.

Getting ready for that yearly ticket surge isn’t only about activating every automation feature on your helpdesk, it’s about increasing efficiency across your entire support operations.

This year, we’re giving you one less thing to worry about with our 2025 BFCM automation guide. Whether your team needs a tidier Help Center or better ticket routing rules, we’ve got a checklist for every area of the customer experience brought to you by top industry players, including ShipBob, Loop Returns, TalentPop, and more. 

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2025 BFCM automation checklist

• Tidy up your Help Center
  
  • Audit your docs
  • Review last year’s BFCM data to find your must-have articles
  • Update your policy details
  • Edit content using easy-to-understand language
• Expedite your ticket routing automations
  
  • Set up automated ticket tags
  • Create an inbox view for each category
  • Set escalation rules for urgent tickets
  • Set up mandatory Ticket Fields
• Prep your macros and AI agent
  
  • Write macros for your top FAQs
  • Train your AI on the right sources
  • Define the limits of what AI should handle
• Forecast your BFCM staffing needs
  
  • Use ticket volume to estimate the number of agents
  • Plan extra coverage with automation or outsourcing
  • Run agent training sessions on BFCM protocols
• Map out your logistics processes
  
  • Negotiate better rates and processing efficiencies
  • Automate inventory reorder points
  • Build contingency plans for disruptions
  • Show shipping timelines on product pages
• Maximize profits with upselling automations
  
  • Guide shoppers with smart recommendations
  • Suggest alternatives when items are out of stock
  • Engage hesitant shoppers with winback discounts
• Keep support quality high with QA automations
  
  • Automate ticket reviews with AI-powered QA
  • Track both agent and AI responses
  • Turn QA insights into coaching opportunities

Tidy up your Help Center

Your customer knowledge base, FAQs, or Help Center is a valuable hub of answers for customers’ most asked questions. For those who prefer to self-serve, it’s one of the first resources they visit. To ensure customers get accurate answers, do the following:

• Audit your docs
• Review last year’s BFCM data to find your must-have articles
• Update your policy details
• Edit content using easy-to-understand language

1. Audit your docs

Take stock of what’s currently in your database. Are you still displaying low-engagement or unhelpful articles? Are articles about discontinued products still up? Start by removing outdated content first, and then decide which articles to keep from there.

Related: How to refresh your Help Center: A step-by-step guide

2. Review last year’s BFCM data to find your must-have articles

Are you missing key topics, or don’t have a database yet? Look at last year’s tickets. What were customers’ top concerns? Were customers always asking about returns? Was there an uptick in free shipping questions? If an inquiry repeats itself, it’s a sign to add it to your Help Center.

3. Update your policy details 

An influx of customers means more people using your shipping, returns, exchanges, and discount policies. Make sure these have accurate information about eligibility, conditions, and grace periods, so your customers have one reliable source of truth.

Personalization tip: Loop Returns advises adjusting your return policy for different return reasons. With Loop’s Workflows, you can automatically determine which customers and which return reasons should get which return policies. 

Read more: Store policies by industry, explained: What to include for every vertical

4. Edit content using easy-to-understand language

Customers want fast answers, so ensure your docs are easy to read and understand. Titles and answers should be clear. Avoid technical jargon and stick to simple sentences that express one idea. To accelerate the process, use AI tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT. 

No time to set up a Help Center? Gorgias automatically generates Help Center articles for you based on what people are asking in your inbox.

Expedite your ticket routing automations

Think of ticket routing like running a city. Cars are your tickets (and customers), roads are your inboxes, and traffic lights are your automations and rules. The better you maintain these structures, the better they can run on their own without needing constant repairs from your CX team. 

Here’s your ticket routing automation checklist:

• Tag every ticket
• Create views for each category you need (VIP, Returns, Troubleshooting, etc.)
• Set escalation rules for urgent tickets
• Set up mandatory Ticket Fields 

1. Set up automated ticket tags

Instead of asking agents to tag every ticket, set rules that apply tags based on keywords, order details, or message type. A good starting point is to tag tickets by order status, returns, refunds, VIP customers, and urgent issues so your team can prioritize quickly.

Luckily, many helpdesks offer AI-powered tags or contact reasons to reduce manual work. For example, Gorgias automatically detects a ticket’s Contact Reason. The system learns from past interactions, tagging your tickets with more accuracy each time.

2. Create an inbox view for each category

Custom or filtered inbox views give your agents a filtered and focused workspace. Start with essential views like VIP customers, returns, and damages, then add specialized views that match how your team works.

If you’re using conversational AI to answer tickets, views become even more powerful. For example, you might track low CSAT tickets to catch where AI responses fall short or high handover rates to identify AI knowledge gaps. The goal is to reduce clutter so agents can focus on delivering support.

3. Set escalation rules for urgent tickets

Don’t get bogged down in minor issues while urgent tickets sit unanswered. Escalation rules make sure urgent cases are pushed to the top of your inbox, so they don’t risk revenue or lead to unhappy customers. 

Tickets to escalate to agents or specialized queues: 

• Lost packages
• Damaged items
• Defective items
• Failed payments
• Open tickets without a follow-up

4. Set up mandatory Ticket Fields to get data right off the bat

Ticket Fields add structure by requiring your team to capture key data before closing a ticket. For BFCM, make fields like Contact Reason, Resolution, and Return Reason mandatory so you always know why customers reached out and how the issue was resolved.

For CX leads, Ticket Fields removes guesswork. Instead of sifting through tickets one by one, you’ll have clean data to spot trends, report on sales drivers, and train your team.

Pro Tip: Use conditional fields to dig deeper without overwhelming agents. For example, if the contact reason is “Return,” automatically prompt the agent to log the return reason or product defect.

Prep your macros and AI agent

Macros and AI Agent are your frontline during BFCM. When prepped properly, they can clear hundreds of repetitive tickets. The key is to ensure that answers are accurate, up-to-date, and aligned with what you want AI to handle.

• Write macros for your most common FAQs
• Train your AI on the right sources
• Define the limits of what AI should handle

1. Write macros for your top FAQs

Customers will flood your inbox with the same questions: “Where’s my order?” “When will my discount apply?” “What’s your return policy?” Write macros that give short, direct answers up front, include links for details, and use placeholders for personalization. 

Bad macro:

• “You can track your order with the tracking link. It should update soon.”

Good macro:

•  “Hi {{customer_firstname}}, you can track your order here: {{tracking_link}}. Tracking updates may take up to 24 hours to appear. Here’s our shipping policy: [Help Center link].”

Pro Tip: Customers expect deep discounts this time of year. BPO agency C(x)atalyze recommends automating responses to these inquiries with Gorgias Rules. Include words such as “discount” AND “BFCM”, “holiday”, “Thanksgiving”, “Black Friday”, “Christmas”, etc.

2. Train your AI on the right sources

AI is only as good as the information you feed it. Before BFCM, make sure it’s pulling from:

• Your Help Center with updated FAQs and policies
• Internal docs on return windows, promos, and shipping cutoffs
• Product catalogs with the latest details and stock info
• BFCM-specific resources like discount terms or extended support hours

Double-check a few responses in Test Mode to confirm the AI is pulling the right information.

3. Define the limits of what AI should handle

Edge cases and urgent questions need a human touch, not an automated reply. Keep AI focused on quick requests like order status, shipping timelines, or promo eligibility. Complex issues, like defective products, VIP complaints, and returns, can directly go to your agents.

Pro Tip: In Gorgias AI Agent settings, you can customize how handovers happen on Chat during business hours and after hours. 

Forecast your BFCM staffing needs

Too few agents and you prolong wait times and miss sales. Too many and you’ll leave your team burned out. Capacity planning helps you find the balance to handle the BFCM surge.

1. Use ticket volume to estimate the number of agents

Use your ticket-to-order ratio from last year as a baseline, then apply it to this year’s forecast. Compare that number against what your team can realistically handle per shift to see if your current staffing plan holds up.

Read more: How to forecast customer service hiring needs ahead of BFCM

2. Plan extra coverage with automation or outsourcing

You still have options if you don’t have enough agents helping you out. Customer service agency TalentPop recommends starting by identifying where coverage will fall short, whether that’s evenings, weekends, or specific channels. Then decide whether to increase automation and AI use or bring in temporary assistance. 

3. Run agent training sessions on BFCM protocols

Before the holiday season, run refreshers on new products, promos, and policy changes so no one hesitates when the tickets roll in. Pair training with cheat sheets or an internal knowledge base, giving your team quick access to the answers they’ll need most often.

Map out your logistics processes

Expect late shipments, low inventory, and more returns than usual during peak season. With the proper logistics automations, you can stay ahead of these issues while reducing pressure on your team. 

ShipBob and Loop recommend the following steps:

• Negotiate better rates and processing efficiencies
• Automate your reverse logistics
• Connect your store, 3PL, and WMS
• Automate inventory reorder points
• Show shipping timelines on product pages

1. Negotiate better rates and processing efficiencies

Shipping costs add up fast during peak season. Work with your 3PL or partners like Loop Returns to take advantage of negotiated carrier rates and rate shopping tools that automatically select the most cost-effective option for each order.

2. Automate inventory reorder points

To maintain a steady supply of products, set automatic reorder points at the SKU level so reorders are triggered once inventory dips below a threshold. More lead time means fewer ‘out of stock’ surprises for your customers.

3. Build contingency plans for disruptions

Bad weather, delays, or unexpected demand can disrupt shipping timelines. Create a playbook in advance so your team knows exactly how to respond when things go sideways. At minimum, your plan should cover:

• Weather disruptions - Do you have a backup plan if carriers can’t pick up shipments due to storms or severe conditions?
• Carrier overloads - Which alternative carriers or routes can you switch to if primary partners are at capacity?
• Inventory shortages - How will you handle overselling, low stock alerts, or warehouse imbalances?
• Demand drop-offs - How will you reallocate inventory if BFCM sales don’t match forecasts?

4. Show shipping timelines on product pages

Customers want to know when their order will arrive before they hit checkout. Add estimated delivery dates and 2-day shipping badges directly on product pages. These cues help shoppers make confident decisions and reduce pre-purchase questions about shipping times.

Pro Tip: To keep those timelines accurate, build carrier cutoff dates into your Black Friday logistics workflows with your 3PL or fulfillment team. This allows you to avoid promising delivery windows your carriers can’t meet during peak season.

Maximize profits with upselling automations

You’ve handled the basics, from ticket routing to staffing and logistics. Now it’s time to go beyond survival. Upselling automations create an end-to-end experience that enhances the customer journey, shows them products they’ll love, and makes it easy to buy more with confidence. To put them to work:

• Guide shoppers with smart recommendations
• Suggest alternatives when items are out of stock
• Engage hesitant shoppers with winback discounts

1. Guide shoppers with smart recommendations

BFCM puts pressure on customers to find the right deal fast, but many don’t know what they’re looking for. Make it easier for them with macros that point shoppers to bestsellers or curated bundles. For a more advanced option, conversational AI like Gorgias Shopping Assistant can guide browsers on their own, even when your agents are offline.

2. Suggest alternatives when items are out of stock

No need to damage your conversion rate just because customers missed the items they wanted. Automations can recommend similar or complementary products, keeping customers engaged rather than leaving them empty-handed.

If an item is sold out, set up automations to:

• Suggest similar items like another size, color, or variation of the same product.
• Highlight premium upgrades such as a newer model or higher-value version that’s in stock.
• Cross-sell and offer bundles to keep the order valuable even without the original item.
• Notify customers about restocks by letting shoppers sign up for back-in-stock alerts.

3. Engage hesitant customers with winback discounts

Automations can detect hesitation through signals like abandoned carts, long checkout times, or even customer messages that mention keywords such as “too expensive” or “I’ll think about it.” In these cases, trigger a small discount to encourage the purchase.

You can take this a step further with conversational AI like Gorgias Shopping Assistant, which detects intent in real time. If a shopper seems uncertain, it can proactively offer a discount code based on the level of their buying intent.

Keep support quality high with QA automations

During BFCM, speed alone is not enough. Customers expect accurate, helpful, and on-brand responses, even when volume is at its highest. QA automations help you prioritize quality by reviewing every interaction automatically and flagging where standards are slipping. To make QA part of your automation prep:

• Automate ticket reviews with AI-powered QA
• Track both agent and AI responses
• Turn QA insights into coaching opportunities

1. Automate ticket reviews with AI-powered QA

Manual QA can only spot-check a small sample of tickets, which means most interactions go unreviewed. AI QA reviews every ticket automatically and delivers feedback instantly. This ensures consistent quality, even when your team is flooded with requests.

Compared to manual QA, AI QA offers:

• Full coverage: Every ticket is reviewed, not just a sample.
• Instant feedback: Agents get insights right after closing tickets.
• Consistency: Reviews are unbiased and use the same criteria across all interactions.
• Scalability: Works at any ticket volume without slowing down your team.

2. Track both agent and AI responses

Customers should get the same level of quality no matter who replies. AI QA evaluates both human and AI conversations using the same criteria. This creates a fair standard and gives you confidence that every interaction meets your brand’s bar for quality.

3. Turn QA insights into coaching opportunities

QA automation is not just about grading tickets. It highlights recurring issues, unclear workflows, or policy confusion. Use these insights to guide targeted coaching sessions and refine AI guidance so both humans and AI deliver better results.

Pro Tip: Pilot your AI QA tool with a small group of agents before peak season. This lets you validate feedback quality and scale with confidence when BFCM volume hits.

Give your ecommerce strategy a boost this holiday shopping season

The name of the game this Black Friday-Cyber Monday isn’t just to get a ton of online sales, it’s to set up your site for a successful holiday shopping season. 

If you want to move the meter, focus on setting up strong BFCM automation flows now. 

Gorgias is designed with ecommerce merchants in mind. Find out how Gorgias’s time-saving CX platform can help you create BFCM success. Book a demo today.

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TL;DR:

• Fast ≠ good. Chasing faster replies without accuracy or empathy leads to frustrated customers, burned-out agents, and declining CSAT.
• Speed-only AI backfires. Quick but wrong responses damage trust and increase ticket volume.
• Train your AI like a new hire. The best results come when AI learns your tone, workflows, and policies—not when it’s treated as plug-and-play.
• Balance speed with quality. Brands like Boody, Cocorico, and TUSHY show that when AI is trained thoughtfully, teams can scale automation and keep the human touch.
• Adopt an accuracy-first mindset. The future of CX belongs to brands that prioritize reliability, empathy, and consistency over being the fastest.

Speed gets all the glory in customer support. The faster the reply, the happier the customer. That’s not always true. When CX teams chase response times at the expense of accuracy or empathy, they often end up with the opposite effect. Frustrated customers, burned-out agents, and slipping CSAT are common when speed is the only priority.

As more teams adopt AI tools that promise instant results, the risk grows. Quick responses mean nothing if they’re wrong or robotic. 

In this post, we’ll unpack why “fast” doesn’t always mean “good” and how an accuracy-first approach to AI leads to better support, and stronger customer relationships in the long run.

The speed trap: why CX teams fall for it

Response time has become the go-to measure of “good” support. Dashboards light up green when messages are answered in seconds, and teams celebrate shaved-down handle times. 

But focusing on speed alone can create a dangerous blind spot.

When “fast” becomes the only KPI that matters, CX leaders make speed-at-all-costs decisions. They may roll out untrained AI tools, overuse canned replies, or push agents to close tickets before solving real problems.

On paper, the metrics look great. In reality, customer sentiment quietly drops.

It’s no surprise that 86% of consumers say empathy and human connection matter more than a quick response when it comes to excellent customer experience. 

Fast support might satisfy your dashboard, but thoughtful, accurate service is what satisfies your customers.

Pitfall #1: Maximizing speed and sacrificing quality

A chatbot replies instantly, but gives the wrong answer. The customer follows up again, frustrated. Now your ticket volume has doubled, your agents are backlogged, and the customer’s confidence in your brand has dropped.

That’s the hidden cost of speed-first support. When teams prioritize quick replies over correct ones, CSAT falls, costs rise, and trust erodes. Customers remember the experience, not the timestamp.

They want to feel understood and confident that their issue is solved. A fast reply that misses the mark doesn’t deliver reassurance, empathy, or clear next steps. It’s not speed they value. It’s resolution, accuracy, and a sense that someone genuinely cared enough to get it right. 

Bad AI answers sting more than slow ones because they feel careless. Especially when they repeat the same mistakes. Accuracy builds credibility; speed without it breaks it.

How Boody delivers high-quality replies while maintaining speed

Boody, for example, found the balance. With AI trained on their tone of voice and workflows, they reduced response times from hours to seconds while maintaining a high CSAT score and freeing agents for meaningful work. 

The bamboo apparel brand uses Gorgias AI Agent to reassure the customer that someone is on the way to help, especially for urgent situations. It’s been instrumental in collecting preliminary information for more nuanced situations, like photos and product numbers for warranty claims.

As Boody’s CX Manager, Myriam Ferraty, explained the key is using AI to provide instant low-effort answers when customers need a prompt response. 

“If a customer reaches out about product feedback or issues, AI Agent prompts the customer to give us all the information we need. When an agent gets to the ticket, they can jump into solution mode right away.” —Myriam Ferraty, CX Manager at Boody

Boody found a way to avoid the “fast but frustrating” trap by pairing speed with quality, and the numbers prove it:

• 99.88% faster first-response times: Boody’s AI Agent reduced average response times from 7 hours to just 31 seconds.
• 9+ hours shorter resolution times: Within one month of implementation, resolution times dropped significantly while accuracy stayed high.
• 26% of all interactions handled by AI: Their AI agent took on repetitive queries, freeing human agents for higher-value conversations.
• 10% revenue lift from support: With agents focused on community engagement and brand experience, customer interactions began driving measurable revenue.

These results show what happen when CX teams train AI thoughtfully, it can becomes a trusted extension of the support team, instead of only increasing speed booster.

Takeaway: Fast and good is possible, but only when your AI is trained, guided, and measured for precision, not just speed.

Read more: How CX leaders are actually using AI: 6 must-know lessons

Pitfall #2: Treating AI as plug-and-play

Many CX teams expect AI to “just work” out of the box. They install a shiny new tool, flip the switch, and hope it starts solving tickets overnight. But AI isn’t a magic button. It’s a new team member. And like any new hire, it needs training, context, and feedback to perform well.

Untrained AI can quickly go off-script. It might give inconsistent answers, slip into the wrong tone, or worse, hallucinate information altogether. The consequences are confused customers, damaged trust, and more cleanup work for your human agents.

AI performs best when it’s trained on your brand voice, policies, and knowledge base. The best CX teams don’t settle for default settings or cookie-cutter templates. They invest time to train their AI. That’s what turns it from a generic chatbot into a genuine brand representative.

How Cocorico’s well-trained AI led to customer trust (and laughter)

Cocorico, a French fashion brand, shows what this looks like in practice. Instead of setting AI loose, their team invested time in teaching it how to communicate naturally and on-brand. Within just a few months, they achieved:

• 48% automation rate, handling nearly half of all customer requests.
• 22-second average first-response time, without losing personalization.

At first, Cocorico’s Ecommerce Manager, Margaux Pourrain, admitted she was hesitant to trust AI, “We were apprehensive about launching AI. On the technical side, I thought, ‘Would the AI respond professionally? Would it respond appropriately? Could it create more work by requiring constant verification?’ On the customer experience side, I was nervous it would feel impersonal.”

Her doubts didn’t last long. Once trained on Cocorico’s workflows and brand tone, AI transformed how the team engaged with customers, “AI Agent responds so personally that customers often don’t realize they’re talking to AI. We’ve even seen customers interacting playfully and joking around with Maurice.”

Takeaway: With proper training and oversight, AI can become a trusted teammate that enhances customer experience rather than diluting it.

Read more: How AI Agent works & gathers data

Pitfall #3: Losing the human touch

When CX teams chase faster replies above all else, it’s easy to forget that great support involves connection. Agents and AI start focusing on closing tickets instead of solving problems.

Speed-only goals create fast but flat experiences that technically help customers but don’t feel human.

Over-automation can strip away the warmth and personality that make a brand memorable. Customers might get an answer in seconds, but if it lacks empathy or context, trust takes a hit. Research supports that brands that prioritize emotional intelligence in support interactions see stronger loyalty and retention rates.

How TUSHY keeps their AI playful, not robotic 

TUSHY, the bidet brand known for its witty tone, took a more thoughtful approach to automation. With Gorgias Shopping Assistant, pre-sale questions about compatibility, installation, and recommendations are handled automatically. This frees up human agents to focus on relationship-building conversations.

As Ren Fuller-Wasserman, TUSHY’s Senior Director of Customer Experience, explained, keeping conversations authentic was central to their approach:

“Too often, a great interaction is diminished when a customer feels reduced to just another transaction. With AI, we let the tech handle the selling, unabashedly, if needed, so our future customers can ask anything, even the questions they might be too shy to bring up with a human. In the end, everybody wins!”

That human touch has paid off. TUSHY’s Shopping Assistant mirrors their playful brand voice and delivers real results:

• +20% increase in chat conversion rate overall
• 81% higher conversion rate compared with human agents
• 13× ROI from the Shopping Assistant investment

“Shopping Assistant has been a game-changer for our team, especially with the launch of our latest bidet models,” Fuller-Wasserman said. “Expanding our product catalog has given customers more choices than ever, which can overwhelm first-time buyers. Now, they’re increasingly looking to us for guidance on finding the right fit for their home and personal hygiene needs.”

Takeaway: Automation shouldn’t erase your brand’s humanity, it should amplify it. When AI is trained to reflect your tone and values, it can boost both efficiency and emotional connection.

The smarter path forward: accuracy-first AI

The future of customer support doesn’t involve being the fastest. Instead it means being the most reliable. Accuracy-first AI reframes automation from a race to respond into a strategy to build trust.

When customers get the right answer, in the right tone, every time, they’re more likely to stay loyal, even if it takes a few seconds longer.

So what does accuracy-first AI actually look like?

• Starts with training and clear guardrails: Like any new team member, your AI needs onboarding. These guardrails include context, escalation rules, and examples of what “great” looks like.
• Learns from past tickets and feedback: Continuous improvement keeps your AI sharp and aligned with evolving customer expectations.
• Reflects your tone and knowledge base: Every response should sound like you, not a generic script.
• Complements instead of replaces human agents: AI should take the repetitive load so humans can focus on empathy, problem-solving, and connection.

Accuracy-first AI is a mindset shift. Teams that treat AI as a coachable teammate, not a plug-and-play tool, will unlock faster resolutions and higher CSAT in the long run.

Read more: Coach AI Agent in one hour a week: SuitShop’s guide 

Build for accuracy, instead of speed

Speed might win you a customer’s attention, but accuracy is what earns their trust. Fast replies mean little if they’re wrong, off-brand, or robotic. The real differentiator in modern CX isn’t how quickly you respond, it’s how effectively you resolve issues and make customers feel understood.

AI should enhance your team’s expertise, not replace it. Train it on your tone, coach it like a new hire, and measure it on quality as much as efficiency.

The brands that will thrive in the AI era won’t always be the fastest. They’ll be the most reliable, human, and consistent. 

Looking for AI-led support that’s fast and human? Book a demo with Gorgias to see how accuracy-first automation can elevate your support.

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TL;DR:

• Happy agents lead to better CX outcomes. When agents genuinely enjoy using their platform, it boosts productivity, morale, and customer satisfaction.‍
• Gorgias makes agents’ lives easier. CX teams at Glossier, Tommy John, and Brunt Workwear unanimously preferred Gorgias over legacy systems.‍
• AI helps teams scale without losing the human touch. By handling basic inquiries, AI gives agents more time for high-impact conversations and personalized support
• Agent satisfaction drives business impact. Brands saw improved team efficiency, reduced operational friction, and revenue gains from more focused, empowered agents.

Everyone talks about how important it is for your ecommerce tools to drive business growth, boost productivity, and deliver a high return on investment. But the equally important (yet often overlooked) third layer is how a tool affects the people using it day-to-day. 

The hidden costs of sticking to the CX status quo

The moment CX and ecommerce leaders start noticing slipping KPIs, frustrated agents, or rising support costs, they ask themselves a question, “Is it time to look for something new?” Sticking with the same tool might seem easier — no demos, evaluations, migrations, onboarding, or retraining involved. 

But ignoring the shortcomings of your current CX platform can snowball into larger issues over time. 

When CX agents don’t like the platform they’re working in daily, bigger problems arise:

• Agent productivity declines 
• Morale and employee retention suffer
• Operational costs rise
• Customer experience takes a hit
• Poor data and reporting if agents aren’t using tags or ticket fields correctly

Beyond the thousands of dollars saved in operational costs or hours saved per ticket, Gorgias helps CX agents focus on what they do best — creating the best customer experience possible. 

When a platform makes agents’ lives easier, they have more time to focus on the moments that matter, like proactively reaching out to VIPs, sending surprise birthday gifts, or empathetically handling nuanced tickets. Not to mention, they enjoy doing it. 

At our annual customer conference, Gorgias Connect, we asked three CX leaders to share their experiences using Gorgias. Aside from the impressive FRTs and CX-generated revenue metrics, one theme stood out — they all mentioned how much their agents enjoyed using Gorgias. 

Glossier’s agents have more time to be expert product consultants 

Emily Weiss first launched a beauty blog and community, Into the Gloss, in 2010 as a space dedicated to sharing real information, advice, and tips with real people. 

This laid the groundwork for Glossier, launching in 2014 with a fresh “skin first, makeup second” philosophy. Amidst the “full glam” era of makeup defined by smoky eyes and bold lips, Glossier’s skincare-oriented approach disrupted the norm. 

From the beginning, Glossier has attracted a strong community thanks to its products designed based on community feedback and its social media presence. Today, more than a decade later, the brand has evolved, but its core principles have stayed the same.

As a customer-obsessed beauty brand, it’s no surprise that Glossier takes a thoughtful approach to customer experience. 

We sat down with Cati Brunell-Brutman, Head of CX at Glossier, to dive into how the team uses Gorgias to make their lives easier while creating better relationships with customers. 

Glossier’s proactive approach to customer experience

How do you approach customer experience at Glossier?

I always like saying customer experience vs. customer service because I think customer service feels like we’re just solving problems in a transactional way. Customer experience is proactive and involves looking at the entire customer journey. 

Our team interacts with customers from the moment they first land on the website to when they become repeat users of a product, and eventually, when they become subscribers. There are many opportunities along the way for our team to connect with people, engage in conversations, and make complementary product recommendations. 

This was what our founder really wanted this team to be—beauty editors. Everyone on the CX team is an editor (or a product expert), making curated recommendations. My vision for our CX team is to give them more time to lean into that. 

Simplifying workflows with AI to empower agents

What are you doing differently now to make sure that your team and your business are more resilient? 

My motto for the year is simplify and automate. I don't want anyone on my team to spend their whole day in a Google spreadsheet. So I’m asking questions like, ‘What can I automate? How can I connect tools?’

I really look to my team, especially the newer members, for this, and encourage them to ask, 'Why do we do this?' Because if the answer is because we've always done it that way, that's not a good enough answer for me. 

I’m focusing on finding those moments to simplify things so that the team can concentrate on impactful work, such as creating connections and engaging with people. That’s what I really want my team to focus on because it’s what brings value to their work, our customers, and the brand. 

How did your team react when you switched to Gorgias from your previous platform? 

We actually had our agents weigh in on this. We showed them demos of all the platforms we were considering and had them attend the meetings to speak with the teams. 

Then, we ran a poll in Slack and asked the team, ‘If you were making this decision, what platform would you choose?’ All of the agents unanimously voted for Gorgias. So, we’re definitely fans. 

How has implementing AI into your CX strategy affected the team?

Throughout the industry, I think people are concerned that there’s going to be a transition to a state where CX is 100% AI, everybody is going to lose their jobs, and customers won’t be able to talk to a person. 

But as we've implemented AI at Glossier, we’ve maintained the same team size as when we first started. We just have so much more automation of things like with WISMO tickets, returns, exchanges, and basic tickets that we don’t need a human to answer with macros for six hours straight. 

Deeper human-to-human connections powered by better tools

With the additional capacity, what can your team now focus on?

The team is actually able to do more work because they're not dealing with an antiquated technical system, which makes their jobs easier and also saves us money in the long run.

Now, our agents can perform tasks that actually require a human. AI can send out tracking links, and people can do the people work. 

We receive a lot of questions about our products, like how to use them or specific recommendations. And that's when we want a person to sit down, look at the customer’s selfie, and do a shade match. Then our editors can ask follow-up questions about what the shopper is looking for and why. 

What makes your agents unique, and how does Gorgias help support them?

One of the things that I really love about Glossier is that our editors — our agents — are people, and we have customers who know them by name. 

It’s really unique, and they’re almost like internet celebrities within our community. I'll go to our Reddit page and see customers posting screenshots of their conversations with our agents, and other customers will reply saying ‘Oh my gosh, yes!’ or ‘They helped me too!’ 

Customers will DM us things like ‘This editor recommended a lipstick for me. It was great, I love it. Can that person recommend a blush for me as well?’ 

Being able to aggregate all those conversations across social media DMs, emails, and chats in one place is invaluable.

Where would your team be without Gorgias? 

Having a really bad time in Gmail.

Tommy John found that Gorgias was the perfect fit for its CX team

In 2008, Tom Patterson was a medical salesperson frustrated with ill-fitting undershirts. This problem he faced every day was the catalyst for him to found Tommy John, a dual-gender underwear, loungewear, and apparel company. 

Tommy John launched with its flagship product, the Stay-Tucked Undershirt, to solve Tom’s initial struggle that he knew other customers were also facing. Fast-forward a few years, and Tommy John expanded into more categories with innovative underwear product lines 

Customer comfort has always been the main priority for Tommy John, embedded in everything from product design to its Best Pair Guarantee. The CX team is responsible for maintaining a customer experience that is just as smooth and seamless as the products they're buying. 

Max Wallace, CX Director at Tommy John, shared his experience migrating from a legacy platform to Gorgias and how it impacted his team. 

The search for a platform that supported both customers and agents

What motivated you to find a new platform? 

We knew we had to seriously explore other options when we were assigned yet another Customer Success Manager on our former platform after having gone through several in a short span. It felt like we were starting from scratch every time, which made it challenging to elevate our CX alongside such a critical partner.

We wanted to do right by our customers and our agents, ensuring they had the reporting and tools they needed, plus more. Gorgias really offered all of those things.

What was most important to you and your team when evaluating helpdesks? 

We didn’t want anything that was reinventing the wheel. One platform we looked at wasn’t doing the agents justice by only allowing them to view their own tickets. 

We really wanted our agents to have a holistic understanding of the volume we’re receiving, which Gorgias provides. Now they have this fleshed-out understanding of every customer interaction, and that’s been a game-changer. They’ve been loving it.

Gorgias gave agents the tools they needed to thrive 

How has Gorgias impacted agent productivity and impact? 

We have definitely seen greater speed and productivity.  Even something as simple as macro suggestions has helped steer new agents in the right direction. That’s going to be huge during peak seasons, like BFCM. 

And the fact that agents can move seamlessly between conversations without losing context means they’re handling more interactions, faster, with less frustration. They feel confident in their workflows, rather than being bogged down in repetitive tasks.

Within two months, using Gorgias’s AI Agent has enabled agents to minimize time-consuming manual tasks and spend more time with high-intent customers, generating over $100,000 in sales. 

I’m confident Gorgias will help us achieve our goal of making selling and CX much more integrated. We do want to reward our team for their efforts in driving sales, and we can track conversion rates per agent in Gorgias.

Why was voice integration such a priority for your team?

Before, our agents didn’t have visibility into previous phone calls that other agents had taken. I can't tell you how many times there has been confusion regarding what's going on with the customer because our agents did not have visibility into the customer’s history. We’d have to pull the call recording, pass it along, and by then, the customer would have already been waiting.

So it was essential for us to find a helpdesk that we could use voice with. Now with Gorgias Voice, agents can look back in the timeline, listen to the call, or even read a transcript or AI-generated summary. That’s just been amazing, and they’re loving that. 

Tying revenue back to call tickets, where most of our upselling and cross-selling happens, has been another huge win.

Tommy John’s agents unanimously prefer Gorgias

How did agents react after the switch?

The number one thing that validates that we made the right decision is that our agents truly love Gorgias.

Two weeks after going live, we asked, ‘Do you feel you will be more efficient working in Gorgias than our previous platform?’ And it was unanimous — Gorgias, completely. And this was just two weeks in, with everyone still getting their feet wet. 

We sent out a survey, and seeing every single person answer in favor of Gorgias told me everything I needed to know about how quickly the team was adapting and how much they preferred the platform.

What has been the CX team’s feedback after using Gorgias for a while? 

Gorgias has really paid off for our agents in terms of their efficiency. Being able to transition seamlessly from a phone call to a follow-up email with just one click is amazing. And having all of that in the timeline — phone calls, emails, chats — that can’t be beat. 

Brunt Workwear’s team stays engaged by helping more customers each day

Eric Girouard founded Brunt Workwear in 2019 to fill a gap in the market for comfortable, high-quality workwear for skilled tradespeople. He came from blue-collar roots himself, and many of his friends and family also work in the trades.

Eric started the company in his garage, focusing on direct-to-consumer sales. Brunt Workwear aims to create products that aren’t just for tradespeople, but are actually built by them.

The workwear brand incorporates a significant amount of customer feedback into the design process to create products that actually make their lives easier. Brunt Workwear’s commitment to its customers is even more evident in its product naming convention — each product is named after a specific tradesworker. 

When we spoke with Ruth Trieger, Director of Customer Experience, she shared how the CX team achieves its goal of making solutions as easy as possible for their busy customers — and why agent satisfaction can’t be overlooked.

How Brunt Workwear makes every customer feel at home

How do you think about the state of CX today?

The best retail or CX advice I’ve ever received is to think of everyone who walks into your store or visits your website as someone entering your home. For every visitor, you will do some basic things, such as taking their coat or offering them something to eat or drink. But if you truly want to make someone feel welcome, you’re going to meet them in a way that aligns with their preferences and makes them feel like they’re a part of something. 

When you make someone feel welcome, they build an emotional connection with a brand that far transcends any product. That’s a powerful thing. 

As I consider customer experience and the growth of AI, I realize there is a constant need to deliver fantastic experiences while using the right amount of resources. If you can do that while still creating a memorable experience, you have a customer for life.

Making life easier for customers and agents with an intuitive platform 

What is your goal when designing experiences for Brunt Workwear’s customers?

Our customer is very busy and very hardworking. They have very little spare time. So if or when something goes wrong, I encourage my team to think, ‘How can we make the solution as easy as possible?’ That’s our goal — to put ourselves in their shoes and reduce friction wherever we can. 

AI can handle repetitive questions, allowing our agents to jump in quickly when nuance or empathy is needed most. What matters is making sure we are there for customers in the moments that really count.

How does Gorgias help your team achieve these goals compared to previous platforms you’ve worked with?

I come from a customer service training background, and I am used to teams needing weeks to train someone on a platform. With Gorgias, I was able to navigate the system myself in very little time. 

As a young but fast-growing brand, we have to be very nimble and change things quickly. Gorgias enables us to do that with a level of ease I've never experienced in my career, so we’re really grateful for the platform. 

I love that our agents can interface with the platform in a way that is very easy, which is good for them. From a productivity and metrics standpoint, if they’re moving easily through a platform, I also know that means they’re able to accomplish more touchpoints with our customers — more phone conversations, more emails, more chats. And that means we are helping more people. 

How does improved agent satisfaction tie back to business results?

At the end of the day, if you don’t have a happy, high-functioning team, you have literally nothing in all the world. We have a talented team, and the more customers they interact with, the more likely those people are to stay with the brand. So we see an increase in customer lifetime value when our agents can spend more time with our customers. 

Gorgias helps agents move from mountains of tickets to meaningful connections 

What additional opportunities does AI open up for your team?

AI is not replacing the human touch; it’s giving us more room to lean into it. It reduces friction so that CX agents can take on higher-value work like running close-the-loop programs, proactively reaching out on the phone, and answering faster. 

If a customer is asking, ‘Where is my order?’, I don’t need to take up an agent’s time with that because AI can get them a simple, fast answer. Then, when another customer needs somebody’s time, they’re there because that person isn’t answering a mountain of tickets. 

That’s the exciting part, AI handles the repetitive stuff, and our agents get to focus on making real connections. 

How has Gorgias enabled you to communicate the value of CX to the broader business internally? 

The reporting in Gorgias has allowed us to become a true strategic partner in the business. CX sees everything: what’s working, what’s not, and what customers are asking about. For every new product launch, every campaign, and every change, my team is on the front lines. With Gorgias’s reporting, we can bring that insight back to the rest of the organization and help shape smarter decisions.

What’s been cool is that we’re now part of the feedback loop in a much more meaningful way. Without Gorgias, we would not be able to add the same level of value as a strategic partner. That’s where I see our role continuing to shift — becoming more proactive, faster at serving customers, and a critical business function. 

At the end of the day, CX knows what’s working, what isn’t, and how customers are feeling. The more we vocalize that, the better off the entire company is.

Choose a CX platform that your CX team actually wants to use

Happy, empowered agents deliver the kind of experiences that keep customers loyal and businesses growing. 

Glossier, Tommy John, and Brunt Workwear show what’s possible when teams have a platform designed for them. More efficiency, more impact, and more human connections. Because when agents love their platform, everyone wins.